Regardless of the ingredients, the fact that the stuff is cooked to high hell until all enzymes are destroyed is enough to explain why dogs on dry food live about half as long as their potential. The oldest dogs in the world never touched processed food; they were randomly fed raw, meaty bones and table scraps. Convenience is nice, but once you've switched to real food, you'll never look back, a it's simple, quick, dogs and cats love it, and it's just so good for them.

I'm NOT SO ACTIVE HERE ANY MORE. IF YOU NEED HELP WITH AN ANIMAL RESCUE OR DOG-BEHAVIOUR ISSUE, PLEASE EMAIL ME AT s e a n @thesanctuarytaiwan.org OR CALL 0920 620 109. THANKS!

Alexandra Horowitz, in INSIDE OF A DOG - WHAT DOGS SEE, SMELL AND KNOW wrote:As the domestication process probably began with early canids scavenging around human groups - eating our table scraps - it is a particularly silly stance to feed dogs only raw meat, on the theory that they are wolves at heart. Dogs are omnivores who for millennia have eaten what we eat. With very few exceptions, what is good on my plate is good for my dog's bowl.

I've fed my dogs raw bones and meats, but, not exclusively. I've read that while raw foods are generally good, they can from time to time cause illnesses. Primitive man also ate raw meats, and from time to time paid a price. Once we discovered and used fire for cooking, food illnesses greatly decreased. I suspect that the same is likely, though to a lesser degree, true for dogs, too.

In any event, I don't understand why anyone feeds dog food to a dog.

As it is, we seem to regard it as a positive objection to a reasoner that he has taken one side or the other. We regard it (in other words) as a positive objection to a reasoner that he has contrived to reach the object of his reasoning. We call a man a bigot or a slave of dogma because he is a thinker who has thought thoroughly and to a definite end.

The latest research shows that dogs did indeed descend from wolves. Regardless, we don't feed raw because we think dogs are wolves (they're not), but because it's the healthiest diet for them and is based on what they've been thriving on for the last 15,000 years, except for the eighty years or so that we've forced them to eat dry, grain-based pellets. Dogs have completely different digestive systems to dogs and are more than capable of dealing with the bacteria. Of the hundreds of dogs whose diet I have overseen, we have yet to see a problem. Cooked bones are of course dangerous to dogs, but raw are essential. If you don't feed your dogs bones, they WILL get gum disease (even the 'pet food' companies acknowledges that, over time, 100 percent of dogs fed a bone-free diet will suffer gum disease). Gum disease spreads around the body and causes life-threatening and debilitating illness, including heart and kidney problems.

I've read Horowitz and wasn't very impressed.

I'm NOT SO ACTIVE HERE ANY MORE. IF YOU NEED HELP WITH AN ANIMAL RESCUE OR DOG-BEHAVIOUR ISSUE, PLEASE EMAIL ME AT s e a n @thesanctuarytaiwan.org OR CALL 0920 620 109. THANKS!

Sorry for bumping super old thread. Could you explain the logistics of feeding raw to your dog? I would like to transition sometime but I really don't even know where to begin. I've seen BARF at some pet stores here but it's incredibly expensive.

I don't eat or buy any meat, and the idea of having around the house kind of grosses me out. My dog also tends to get sick if she eats things other than her normal food. (vomit or diarrhea)

"War is just a racket. I helped make Mexico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for international banking in 1909-1912. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested" - Major General Smedley Butler
http://lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm

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